Mr. Clint Georg - The House Committee on Natural Resources ...

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This creates a situation where even modest size lumber operations in the state cannot survive withoutpurchasing timber directly or indirectly from the USFS. Of course, this was conclusively demonstratedby the failure of so many Colorado timber operations discussed above over the years when the USFSdramatically reduce the amount of timber sales. <strong>The</strong> 40-45 MMBF of timber sold annually in 2003 -2007 was clearly inadequate to support a healthy timber industry as the single remaining large sawmillin Colorado, and the one just north in Saratoga, Wyoming, both require 40 MMBF annually to operateeven a single shift (and to operate efficiently, should run multiple shifts).Currently the restrictions on timber sales in this area appear to be primarily an issue of funding andresource allocation. With a tightening federal budget, fiscal allocations to the region are projected tofall and the volume of timber projected to be sold in this region in the coming years is expected to beonly a fraction of the timber that could be sold, as identified by the USFS in its internal forecasts.Fortunately, the amount of funding necessary to spur the Colorado timber industry appears to be fairlymodest, particularly in light of the benefits. To understand the funds needed, it is helpful to understandthe process the USFS has to go through to prepare a timber sale.PROCESS TO PREPARE USFS TIMBER SALESAn understanding of the process and resources required by the USFS to prepare a tract of timber for sale.Before committing to a timber sale at a particular site, the Forest Service is required to analyze virtuallyevery environmental impact that might result from making that sale and to document in detail theresults of those analyses. <strong>The</strong> process requires compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act(NEPA), and in the case of programmatic Land and Resource Management Plans, the National ForestManagement Act (NFMA). Several of the key documents developed for a typical timber sale are theenvironmental assessment, biological evaluation, decision notice, and "Finding of No Significant Impact."<strong>The</strong> process involves the work of trained foresters, wildlife experts, hydrologists and archeologists andcan take 1.5 to 3 years to complete.Historically once this work was done and the decision to go forward with the sale was made, the processentered an appeal phase where the public could enter an appeal of the decision. Recently, this has beenchanged to an objection phase which is intended to streamline the process, but historically this phasehas taken 1 to 5 years when caught up in litigation.Once the objection process is over, the Forest Service identifies the particular stand(s) of timber for thesale, puts a boundary around the unit, marks the trees if required, measures the trees, notes defectsand other characteristics that help define the volume and other specifics of the sale. This field processtakes about six months to a year. <strong>The</strong> rest of the process is office work that can be done in a matter ofweeks. All told, the process typically takes about 3 to 3.5 years to complete.<strong>The</strong> primary limiting factor of increasing the amount of timber sales, in light of the process required toprepare the timber sales, appears to be an issue of resource allocation or funding levels. <strong>The</strong> resourcesare primarily the staff required to prepare the timber sales. In the northern region of Colorado, theUSFS employs six foresters, two wildlife experts, an archeologist and a hydrologist and perhaps oneother individual in preparing the current level of timber sales. <strong>The</strong> Saratoga sawmill could processnearly double the annual amount of timber in the sales that are projected to be prepared by this teamfor the Medicine Bow – Routt, Arapahoe – Roosevelt and White River Forests over the next severalyears. Doubling the level of timber contracts would require doubling, or adding eleven people, to thestaff to prepare those sales. <strong>The</strong> cost of this increased staff could be offset by the revenue generated4
from those contracts, the reduced cost of stewardship contracts as well as the potential cost reductionsfrom the reduced risk of fire in the logged areas.<strong>The</strong> second factor influencing an assured timber supply to the industry is the current inability of theUSFS to make long-term commitments on the volume of timber sold in out years. <strong>The</strong> USFS servicedevelops a five year forecast of timber sales in the region. Execution of this plan is dependent on anumber of factors, but the primary factor is the allocation of resources which is an annual event. <strong>The</strong>annual nature of the funding helps to discourage any investment in the industry in this region becausemeaningful investments typically require multi-year paybacks. <strong>The</strong> USFS and industry need to find ameans of a multi-year commitment for the timber supply in order to incentivize addition investments.POINT NO. 1: A MINIMUM REQUIREMENT FOR AN ACTIVE AND HEALTHY TIMBER INDUSTRY INCOLORADO IS THE ALLOCATION OF ENOUGH FUNDING FOR THE USFS TO OFFER A SUFFICIENTNUMBER OF TIMBER CONTRACTS TO SUPPORT SAWMILL OPERATIONS IN THE REGION.BENEFITS OF THE SAWMILL INDUSTRY TO COLORADOAnd active sawmill industry in Colorado benefits the people, economy and environment.An active timber industry in Colorado, supported by an appropriately increased volume of USFS timbersales, provides a number of benefits to Colorado and the forests in the area. First is the economicimpact to the state.Today Colorado, a state rich in timber supply, imports more than 90 percent of the wood productsconsumed in the state from other states and countries. Increasing timber harvests in the state can beused to spur economic growth measured in the products produced from those timber harvests, thehundreds of jobs for sawmill workers, loggers and truck drivers and all the direct and indirect benefits tothe communities and small businesses supporting the economic activity of the timber industry.As an example, I recently spoke with the mayor of a small town that previously had a small operatingsawmill. After that sawmill closed in 2009, families left town to find work and there was a 40% drop inthe number students attending the local school. Without a means to replace those jobs, the mayorexpects that the town will need to close the school. If that happens, the mayor has told me that it willbe hard to get young families to move there – effectively a death sentence for the town. This is ascenario that has been repeated across the country since sawmills represent an industry often bettersuited to rural areas rather than to big cities.POINT NO. 2: COLORADO AND THE REGION HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPUR ECONOMIC GROWTHWITH A RESURGENCE OF THE TIMBER INDUSTRY IN THE STATE.In addition to providing economic advantages, the timber industry is essential to maintaining a healthyforest. Today, increased public support for the timber industry in our area is largely the result of thewidespread devastation caused by the mountain pine beetle.Mountain Pine Beetle DevastationMountain pine beetles have been part of the natural cycle in Colorado forests for eons, however theextent of the current infestation and the amount of destruction it has wrought is unprecedented. <strong>The</strong>scope of the infestation was due in large part to the high density and lack of age diversity of the forests.In Colorado, mountain pine beetles attack mature ponderosa and lodgepole pine. In nature, periodicfires and other devastating events thin forests and create an age diversity that limits the impact of a5
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Mr. Clint Georg - The House Committee on Natural Resources ...

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